Not only did they taste delicious, they were cheap, required little effort and no washing up. They were quite small compared to other Yorkshire puddings I have eaten in the past, but that didn't bother me, I just put two or three on my plate instead. If you are going to cook the same food in both baskets you can enter the time and temperature settings in one basket and then copy those settings to the other basket with the cooking synchronisation function by pressing the L=R button. The Chefree AFW20 air fryer is the latest iteration on the air fryer concept, building on the well-established form and function, yet still managing to add a few new appealing features. Both baskets have a transparent window so you can see the cooking status of your food at all times without having to open the basket.

With eight cooking modes available, there’s practically an option for whatever you need, down to rather specific modes like Broil that’ll deliver top-down heating only to melt the cheese on your toast perfectly. LED display: large touch screen with double display (one per basket) to control its functions independently. One of the more interesting features of the Chefree AFW20 compared to most air fryers is the inclusion of windows, bringing its comparison to a full-blown oven closer than ever – especially when combined with in-basket lighting to give you a clearer look at your food. Having two completely independent cooking drawers means you can easily prepare two different foods at once, also using different programmes, times and temperatures for each drawer (e.g. roast in one; air fry in the other), yet also instruct the Chefree to have everything ready to serve at the same time. This 'Sync Finish Function' is actually reasonably amazing, to be fair, and it takes a lot of hassle out of cooking large meals to feed a family or even just something for yourself of an evening. No need to cook elements of the menu sequentially: everything can be ready at once (provided your planned meal fits into two drawers, obvs). The dual 4L basket design allows you to cook two different foods at different temperatures and even different cooking modes, at the same time, with a Sync Finish option removing the need to manually time your cook so all your food is ready at the same time.

The curly fries were done in 12 minutes at just 170℃, while the turkey drummers came out perfectly golden in little over 16 minutes at 180℃ – a process made much easier by the aforementioned Sync Finish feature. Cooking is achieved by Chefree's 360° evenly distributed rapid air circulation technology, which sends super-hot air around the food up to four times faster than a traditional oven. This is where the energy savings are made: things are simply done much faster with an air fryer. You can also search recipes by your specific Chefree model (Chefree makes more than one air fryer, as you can imagine), so the app will tell you exactly which buttons to press. It's the ultimate idiot's guide to air frying, but genuinely useful to get you up and running. Once you get the hang of things, new ideas and ingredients should start to pop into your head unbidden, as the potential of the device gradually dawns on you. Still, if your kitchen countertops are big enough, it’s doable – and there’s a good reason why it’s so large.

The CHEFREE AFW20 air fryer offers 8L of capacity distributed in two baskets that allow you to cook more in less time and using less electricity. SYNC Finish, Serve Together: Thanks to 2 independent frying baskets, you can use different programs, times and temp in each draw, both ready at the same time. With Dual Cook Function, get the double guilt-free fried foods with the SYNC cook function. There is a Chefree App featuring over 100 recipes "by our chef" (the company says), organised into useful categories, e.g. 'Breakfast Food' and a '21-day Food Plan'. There's a traditonal Recipe Book format, where you can search/define by keyword (e.g. Simple, Western, French, Japanese, Difficulty etc) and also save your own recipes. ViewCook Window: Features the viewing window in the front of the basket, together with the internal light, it allows you to keep an eye on what was cooking - without opening the basket and letting heat escape. Both baskets can be cooking food at the same time or you can use only one of them, as they are independently controlled.Intelligent preset programs: 8 presets (AIR FRY / ROAST / AIR CRISP / BROIL / BAKE / GRILL / DEHYDRATE / REHEAT) It doesn’t get too warm on the lid, but even so, I’d not recommend leaving anything on there that could potentially burn or melt over longer periods of use. The bigger thing to worry about is the dual rear exhausts, which can put out quite a bit of hot air during use. The top row is reserved for all eight cooking modes: air fry, roast, air crisp, broil, bake, dehydrate, reheat and grill. Once you select one of the cooking modes, you’ll then be able to tap either L or R, depending on which basket you use and tweak your time and temperature settings using the up and down keys on either side. While the maximum 2400W draw at full capacity will see a drain of roughly 71p an hour on current electricity tariffs, that’s still much cheaper than a conventional oven, and more importantly, it’s not very often you’ll use the air fryer for that long. The CHEFREE AFW2 includes a SHAKE function so you don’t forget to shake food, especially useful for fries.

Of course, you don’t buy a huge air fryer to make cheese on toast, so let’s talk about more involved meals. The performance of the AFW01 Air Fryer was good overall but there are some areas that could use improvement. For example, as there are no recipes, or guidance for cooking different types of food, I was unsure what programme to use for frozen food, although as 200°C was the highest temperature available, this seemed like the best option. Also on the control panel is the light button, which illuminates the cooking cavity for a minute, thanks to a window within the drawer. The window itself is small, slightly tinted, and obscured by a handle, so it’s not always easy to see how brown the food actually is. It offers 8 intelligent cooking programmes that you can easily select from the fryer’s touch screen. Each program has stored time and temperature settings specific to each function. The 8 programmes are: AIR FRY, ROAST, AIR CRISP, BROIL, BAKE, GRILL, DEHYDRATE and REHEAT. One of the more interesting features of the touch interface is Sync Finish. As the name suggests, this allows you to individually set each basket’s mode, temperature and time and have them both finish simultaneously.

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The post-pandemic parallel stresses of a cost-of-living crisis compounded by soaring energy bills has been a positive boon for the air fryer industry. People have still got to eat, so the idea of being able to prepare hot meals in half the time has proved a deliciously attractive proposition. Within each basket is a crisper plate, which can sit either one-third or two-thirds of the way down depending on what you’re cooking – you can bring foods like sausages closer to the heat source when grilling for a better finish. A handy little touch is the addition of grippy silicone feet on both sides of the grill plate that helps it stay securely place, even if you’re tipping a basket of chips onto a plate.